A quick visit to the British Museum

Two forces propelled me to the BM on Saturday afternoon: finding out about sketching stools, and the Germany exhibition. (Timed tickets for the latter, unless you are a "friend" of the museum.)

Also I wanted to do a quick rekky of the Korean Gallery, in preparation for drawing day tomorrow - and found it was closed for renovation! This required a reconsideration, a search for quiet rooms. Room 95, Chinese ceramics, is usually quiet, hidden away off the north staircase, and has such lovely things, beautifully displayed -

Also on the north stairs are the Print gallery, and above that, the Japanese gallery -

Below, the Chinese and Indian galleries, in a long room with gold leaf on the walls; the bays lend themselves to being out of the full flow of the traffic -

Then right near the back door - the north entrance - is the Islamic gallery -

fascinating and usually not too busy, not as busy as the Egyptian galleries at least! So that's the destination of choice.

Sketching stools are available on racks to your right as you enter the Great Court from the front entrance, and as you enter the Living and Dying gallery from the north entrance. Others are said to be in or near Room 56 on Level 3, but that is dangerously near the ever-popular Egyptian galleries.

In the Print room, on level 4, I found a small display put together by 6th form students from a local school, who also wrote the labels -

The prints they chose ranged from the 16th century to these modern prints by two of my favourite artists, Chris Drury and David Nash -

As for the Germany exhibition - I've started listening to the "Memories of a Nation" podcasts, all 30 of which are available on the BBC website - and got curious about the actual objects. No photography in the exhibition (and it was fairly crowded and dim), but the objects discussed are pictured on the BBC website, as well as highlights on the BM website. The exhibition runs till 25 January.